Common Sense

Brand Survival in the Post-Factual Age

NOTE: Sign up below to receive our whitepaper on this issue later this month. Perhaps the most surreal new phrase in the American lexicon is “alternative facts” -- introduced by Trump administration senior advisor Kellyanne Conway in a bizarre effort to explain or justify White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s…

Deaf & Blindsided: Innovation is About Listening

What does the Inauguration of the 45th American President and Blockbuster have in common? The organizations weren't listening. I know, probably an answer far less snarky than what you were expecting. However, there is a far more pragmatic and important reality impacting your business you need to recognize. With the holiday season…

When Media Attack

Note: this commentary originally appeared as an episode of The Full Monty show. You can listen to it here: So much about the political and media cycle in 2016 has been unusual, uncommon, or unprecedented. If anyone thought this pattern would end once the election was over, the past…

Cybersecurity and the CMO

(Photo credit: Yuri Samoilov via Flickr Creative Commons) You might not have realized it, but on October 21, 2016, the role of the CMO — and writ larger, business itself — changed forever. Last Friday’s DDoS attacks on the Dyn Managed DNS infrastructure took out much of the Internet across North…

Awareness, Transparency, & Trust: How A Fake Instagram Account Might Cost Marketers More Than We Realize

(Photo credit: Terry Johnston Photo via Flickr Creative Commons) If you haven't yet heard the Internet-based tale of Louise Delage, it's worth a few minutes of your time and consideration. Ms. Delage, a 25 year old woman from Paris, joined Instagram on August 1 and quickly became a star. Pretty, fun-loving,…

The LinkedIn User Experience Needs Improvement

By Qwertyxp2000 via Wikimedia Commons Last week, I made a major career announcement; my partners and I launched the executive consultancy Brain+Trust Partners. We pulled all of the usual levers: press release, media and influencer briefings, blog posts, social network sharing, and profile updates. As you would expect, one of those updates…